"It took a very long time for stupid little Ginny to stop trusting her diary," said Riddle. "But she finally became suspicious and tried to dispose of it. And that's where you came in, Harry. You found it, and I couldn't have been more delighted, after all, you are Ophelia's brother, Of all the people who could have picked it up, it was you, the brother of the very person that I needed to see again, she was stolen from me about 5 decades you know, died right in my arms. . . . By your precious Dumbledore"
"Who the hell is Ophelia?" Harry asked getting annoyed and frustrated, he just wanted to get Ginny out of there
"She is," Tom said and pointed to the younger Potter
"Her name is Kirra," Harry said back, this whole time, Kirra had gone silent, she knew what was happening, she wasn't stupid and she read a lot of books, in fact, she had read about a specific curse that had been rumoured to be placed on a student in Hogwarts, though she never would have guessed that it had been her.
Tom Riddle smirked, "In this life maybe... but her first life, her name was Ophelia Winston, she went to Hogwarts with me, in fact she was in my year. She was a very intriguing student, she was different from everybody else, she saw behind my 'perfect boy' facade that nobody else saw past. And yet, she still wanted to help me.
Tom's face had gone soft as he thought back to his times in Hogwarts, "Dumbledore was the only other person who saw past me, and sure he wanted to change me to be better just like Ophelia, but he wanted to change me because he was scared, she wanted to change me, because she cared for me"
Kirra shuffled in her spot, "The heir of Slytherin and The heir of Hufflepuff, who would have thought? I couldn't protect her from that stupid old bat and he took her away from me, it was the final thing that drove me to do it. When she died, that was when the curse was placed on her, when the prophecy was made -" Kirra softly cut him off, she had read over the words so many times, not knowing why she was so attached to it, by now, she knew it word from word
'" - And there she lay, in the arms of whom had only loved once. Blood gushed and tears slipt as the light left her body, but not her soul. He begged to her stay, but it was not enough. The goddess of love, Aphrodite looked upon the scene and declared that as his love was taken from the boy, so too was all his humanity. The angel in the arms of the devil. The light in the darkness. May the angel be reborn to return the humanity lost in the next' -" Kirra finished by looking up at Tom, but as she looked at the boy all she could think about was Theodore.
Harry looked overly confused
"That's right, I didn't know what it meant at first, but I found out a couple of decades later when I saw you for the second time."
"I still don't get it, who are you and why did you want to meet Kirra?" said Harry. Anger was coursing through him, and it was an effort to keep his voice steady.
"Well, you see, Ginny told me all about you, Kirra and of course I knew who you were right away when she began to tell me about you, especially how you were dating a Nott..." said Riddle.
"Your whole fascinating history." His eyes roved over the lightning scar on Kirra's forehead, and his expression grew guilty.
"I knew I must find out more about you, talk to you, meet you if I could. So I used your brother, Harry, and I decided to show you my famous capture of that great oaf, Hagrid, to gain your trust —"
"Hagrid's my friend," said Harry, his voice now shaking. "And you framed him, didn't you? I thought you made a mistake, but —"
Riddle laughed his high laugh again. "It was my word against Hagrid's, Harry. Well, you can imagine how it looked to old Armando Dippet. On the one hand, Tom Riddle, poor but brilliant, parentless but so brave, school prefect, model student, boyfriend of an heir . . . on the other hand, big, blundering Hagrid, in trouble every other week, trying to raise werewolf cubs under his bed, sneaking off to the Forbidden Forest to wrestle trolls . . . but I admit, even I was surprised how well the plan worked. I thought someone must realize that Hagrid couldn't possibly be the Heir of Slytherin, though of course, you did"
Tom looked to the girl, a small hint of annoyance in his eyes "It had taken me five whole years to find out everything I could about the Chamber of Secrets and discover the secret entrance. . . as though Hagrid had the brains or the power! Only Oph and the Transfiguration teacher, Dumbledore, seemed to think Hagrid was innocent. He persuaded Dippet to keep Hagrid and train him as gamekeeper."
Kirra was only beginning to feel more and more sick to her stomach as time past. " Yes, I think Dumbledore might have guessed. . . .Dumbledore never seemed to like me as much as the other teachers did, when he found out what I had been doing, he wasn't surprised. . . I changed though, I stopped because Oph made me a better person, but of course Dumbledore didn't believe that someone like me could be good, so he tried to kill me, but Ophelia sacrificed herself for me, she sat in my arms for 15 minutes clinging to life. The stupid fool took everything from me so I planned to take everything from him"
"I bet Dumbledore saw right through you," said Harry, his teeth gritted.
"Well, he certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after Hagrid was expelled," said Riddle carelessly. "I knew it wouldn't be safe to open the Chamber again while I was still at school. But I wasn't going to waste those long years I'd spent searching for it. I decided to leave behind a diary, preserving my sixteen-year-old self in its pages, so that one day, with luck, I would be able to lead another in my footsteps, and finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work."
"Well, you haven't finished it," said Harry triumphantly. "No one's died this time, not even the cat. In a few hours, the Mandrake Draught will be ready and everyone who was Petrified will be all right again —"
"Haven't I already told you," said Riddle quietly, "that killing Mudbloods never mattered to me after Ophelia died, I just wanted to take everything from Dumbledore, and get her back." Harry stared at him.
"Imagine how angry I was when the next time my diary was opened, it was Ginny who was writing to me, not you or Ophelia or of course, the other heir that walks around the halls. She saw you with the diary, you see, and panicked. What if you found out how to work it, and I repeated all her secrets to you?" Tom Riddle smirked
"I've waited a long time to see you, Ophelia, as I get stronger, all my memories have come back, I remember thinking you were gone forever and then I saw you again, decades later with that stupid Slytherin boy, so I made a plan to get rid of him of course, how could I let him have you when you belong to me, so I tricked him and his stupid elf, but just like you did in your previous life, you loved too much, so you went to save him, but you were too late. You tried to keep his memory alive and tell everyone he was good, that there was light in him, but it was too much for you... and so once more you were reborn, as Kirra Potter."
"I didn't know it was you, after all, you were just a baby, but of course it was you, however, there is still something I don't understand," said Riddle, smiling pleasantly as he turned to Harry,
"How is it that you — a skinny boy with no extraordinary magical talent — managed to defeat the greatest wizard of all time? How did you escape with nothing but a scar, while Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed? I mean I can understand Ophelia, after all she had the curse of a God flowing through her veins, but how did you do it, Harry Potter"
There was an odd red gleam in his hungry eyes now.
"Why do you care how I escaped?" said Harry slowly, still trying to process the information about his sister being reborn over and over, falling in love with evil Slytherin's to make them good.
"Voldemort was after your time. . . ."
"Voldemort," said Riddle softly, "is my past, present, and future, Harry Potter. . . ." He pulled Harry's wand from his pocket and began to trace it through the air, writing three shimmering words: TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE
Then he waved the wand once, and the letters of his name rearranged themselves: I AM LORD VOLDEMORT
"You see?" he whispered. "It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, to my most intimate friends only, of course. You think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father's name forever? I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother's side? I, keep the name of a foul, common Muggle, who abandoned me even before I was born, just because he found out his wife was a witch? No, Harry — I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world!"
"Damn, how long did that take you to make?" Kirra asked sarcastically, having enough of this, "So you loved me and yet you killed my parents? You took everything from me!" She yelled as tears poured down her cheeks, "I've had enough of this crap, just give us Ginny and let us go"
Tom couldn't bring himself to look at the girl, scared that he would give in, "i'm afraid I can't do that, I will be leaving here with you tonight, and nobody is going to stop me" Tom Riddle spat.
"Actually, I will" a voice echoed through the chamber and Theodore Nott stormed over to them, pushing the girl behind his body protectively, The resemblance between the two boys who were squaring each other up was uncanny.
"Theo" Kirra breathed out softly in shock, "How did you get in here? How did you get passed the rock wall?" Theodore ignored the question since that really didn't matter right now.
"Ahh you must be the Theodore that Ginny told me about, what a lovely little surprise, i'm honoured to finally meet the boy who thinks he can take Ophelia from me," Tom Riddle said with a smirk and Kirra felt her whole world crash down around her as the words left his lips, "and of course, my god-son... if you are Malakai Nott's son... you're father is my right hand man and helped me come up with my plan to kill the Potters, but of course, you knew that."
"Wh-what?" Kirra choked out and stumbled back a bit, she looked towards Theodore who was now looking at her with a sad look on his face, her eyes were begging him to tell her that it was a lie, "Y-your dad helped kill my parents... and this whole time you knew. You knew and you never told me" She choked out with a hurt and betrayed look on her face as tears ran down her cheeks.
"I was going to tell you" Theodore whispered but he turned to his father, "I'm not going to let you touch her, she's not going with you" Theodore snapped
"That's where you're wrong, she belongs to me" Tom growled back and Theodore scoffed, "Over my dead body"
"If that's the way it has to be, then so be it" Tom smirked which caused Kirras heart to thump loudly in her chest, she was mad at Theo, she was lied to, but she wasn't going to let him die, especially not for her. Theodore went to grab his wand from his pocket, and pointed it at Tom but Tom was too quick for him, "Expelliamus" and Theodore's wand flew right into his hand
Tom Riddle opened his mouth, but froze. Music was coming from somewhere. Tom whirled around to stare down the empty Chamber. The music was growing louder. It was eerie, spine-tingling, unearthly; it lifted the hair on Kirra's scalp and made her heart feel as though it was swelling to twice its normal size, Theodore tried to pull her closer to him but she stepped away from him, causing Theodore's heart to almost rip out of his chest.
A crimson bird the size of a swan had appeared, piping its weird music to the vaulted ceiling. It had a glittering golden tail as long as a peacock's gleaming golden talons, which were gripping a ragged bundle.
A second later, the bird was flying straight at Harry. It dropped the ragged thing it was carrying at his feet, then landed heavily on his shoulder. As it folded its great wings, Harry looked up and saw it had a long, sharp golden beak and a beady black eye. The bird stopped singing. It sat still and warm next to Harry's cheek, gazing steadily at Tom Riddle.
"That's a phoenix. . . ." said Tom Riddle, staring shrewdly back at it.
"Fawkes?" Harry breathed.
"And that — " said Riddle, now eyeing the ragged thing that Fawkes had dropped, "that's the old school Sorting Hat —" So it was. Patched, frayed, and dirty, the hat lay motionless at Harry'sfeet. Riddle began to laugh again. He laughed so hard that the dark Chamber rang with it, as though ten Riddles were laughing at once —
"This is what Dumbledore sends his defender! A songbird and an old hat! Do you feel brave, Harry Potter? Do you feel safe now? Do you really think you can keep Ophelia from me?"
Harry didn't answer.
"To business, Theodore," said Tom, still smiling broadly. "Give me the girl," he added softly, "and nobody will get hurt."
Theodore was thinking fast, weighing his chances. Tom Riddle had the wand. Harry, had Fawkes and the Sorting Hat, neither of which would be much good in a duel. It looked bad, all right . . . If it had to be a fight between him and his father to protect the girl, he wasn't going to shy away.
"Ophelia Winston may have been yours," said Theodore abruptly. "But this is Kirra Potter, and she doesn't belong to you, in this lifetime, she's my girl" he added, shaking with suppressed rage.
Tom's face contorted. Then he forced it into an awful smile. "We can be on the same team Theodore, you, your father and I, taking over the world, there will be someone else out there for you."
Theodore didn't even debate it but Tom went on, "Just give me the girl"
"Never" Harry and Theodore exclaimed as they stood protectively in front of the girl, tense, waiting for the memory of Tom Riddle to raise his wand. But Toms's twisted smile was widening again.
"Now, Theodore and Harry, I'm going to teach you a little lesson. Let's match the powers of Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, against Theodore Nott, and the famous Harry Potter, and the best weapons Dumbledore can give him. . . ."
He cast an amused eye over Fawkes and the Sorting Hat, then walked away.
Riddle stopped between the high pillars and look up into the stone face of Slytherin, high above him in the half-darkness. Tom opened his mouth wide and hissed— but Harry, Kirra and Theodore understood what he was saying. . . .
"Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four."
The second years all looked up at the wall statue. Slytherin's gigantic stone face was moving. Something was stirring inside the statue's mouth. Something was slithering up from its depths. The three of them backed away until they hit the dark Chamber wall, Fawkes took flight
Something huge hit the stone floor of the Chamber. Kirra felt it shudder— she knew what was happening, she could sense it, could almost see the giant serpent uncoiling itself from Slytherin's mouth. Then she heard Tom's hissing voice: "Kill the boys, don't harm the girl "
The basilisk was moving toward them; they could hear its heavy body slithering heavily across the dusty floor. Eyes still tightly shut, the three of them began to run blindly sideways, their hands outstretched, feeling their way —Voldemort was laughing — Harry tripped, Kirra heard him let out a groan so she opened her eyes and quickly helped him up. The serpent was barely feet from them, she quickly shut her eyes again, they could hear it coming —
"Stay away from her" Theodore yelled and threw a rock at it, he quickly closed his eyes, waiting for it to attack him but it didn't — He couldn't help it — he opened his eyes wide enough to squint at what was going on.
The enormous serpent, bright, poisonous green, thick as an oak trunk, had raised itself high in the air and its great blunt head was weaving drunkenly between the pillars.
Ready to close his eyes if it turned, he saw what had distracted the snake. Fawkes was soaring around its head, and the basilisk was snapping furiously at him with fangs long and thin as sabers — Fawkes dived. His long golden beak sank out of sight and a sudden shower of dark blood spattered the floor.
The snake's tail thrashed, narrowly missing Theodore, and before Theodore could shut his eyes, it turned — Kirra let out a pained cry as Theodore looked straight into its face, but nothing happened. He looked and saw that its eyes, both its great, bulbous yellow eyes, had been punctured by the phoenix; blood was streaming to the floor, and the snake was spitting in agony.
"NO!" Tom screamed, "LEAVE THE BIRD! LEAVE THE BIRD! THE BOY IS BEHIND YOU! YOU CAN STILL SMELL THEM! KILL THE BOYS!" The blinded serpent swayed, confused, still deadly. Fawkes was circling its head, piping his eerie song, jabbing here and there at its scaly nose as the blood poured from its ruined eyes.
Kirra ran over to the boy quietly, concern in her eyes. He nodded his head softly to tell her that he was okay. The snake's tail whipped across the floor again. Kirra grabbed the sorting hat off the ground and seized it before throwing it to Harry.
Harry rammed his hand into the hat and pulled out a gleaming silver sword, its handle glittering with rubies the size of eggs. "KILL THE BOYS! LEAVE THE BIRD! THE BOYS ARE BEHIND YOU! SNIFF — SMELL HIM!"
Harry was on his feet, ready. While Theodore kept the girl behind him. The basilisk's head was falling, its body coiling around, hitting pillars as it twisted to face the three of them. They could see the vast, bloody eye sockets, see the mouth stretching wide, wide enough to swallow them whole, lined with fangs long as his sword, thin, glittering, venomous —It lunged blindly — The three of them dodged and it hit the Chamber wall.
It lunged again, and its forked tongue lashed Kirra's side making her let out a cry of pain and she fell to the floor.
"NO" all of the boys cried out angrily. Harry decided to try and lead the snake away from his sister so he ran down the pipes, the snake chasing after him, leaving Theodore, Tom and Kirra in the room (and an unconscious Ginny)
The wound was very deep, and the girl was struggling to breathe as she flashed in and out of consciousness, "hey you're going to be okay, I'm gonna get you out of here alright" Theodore said quickly, tears in his eyes as the girl began to bleed heavily, he went to pick her up but stopped at the sound of footsteps coming over to him. Theodore stood up quickly, standing in front of her as Tom walked over with a smile on his face, this was his chance to get the girl.
"Alright Theodore, now all you have to do is hand her over to me" Tom instructed
"I'm not going to let you do this," Theodore said firmly
"I told you. I'm here for the girl, not you. All you have to do is hand her over." The smile on the mans face only grew, causing the aura around the room to become more sinister.
Theodore stayed in front of the girl protectively as she lay on the ground, barely breathing, "And I told you. Over my dead body."